{"id":38964,"date":"2014-01-27T12:00:45","date_gmt":"2014-01-27T12:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=38964"},"modified":"2015-05-05T22:20:02","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T21:20:02","slug":"ugandas-anti-gay-bill-unsigned-but-still-effective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/01\/ugandas-anti-gay-bill-unsigned-but-still-effective\/","title":{"rendered":"Uganda\u2019s Anti-Gay Bill, Unsigned but Still Effective"},"content":{"rendered":"

Uganda\u2019s president, Yoweri Museveni, has reportedly refused to sign a controversial anti-gay bill that would mean life in prison<\/a> for people convicted of homosexual acts.<\/p>\n

But many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual and intersex (LGBTI) people in the East African country, and NGOs trying to help them, say many have been suffering discrimination for years and it is getting worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople think it [the bill] is already law,\u201d Judith, who asked not to be identified for her safety, told IPS.\u00a0 \u201cWhether the bill is passed or not, we are suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judith, 25, is an HIV positive former sex worker, a man trapped inside a woman\u2019s body, who turned to sex work for financial survival after her parents suspected she was gay when she was 16 and threw her out of their village home.<\/p>\n

For her, the rejection has already started. Judith claims she was discriminated against in early January at the clinic she regularly visits in Kampala.<\/p>\n

Judith, who was diagnosed HIV positive in 2008 and has a dangerously low immune system and gonorrhoea, says the doctor told her that other patients were complaining because the clinic was treating a \u201cgay\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Don\u2019t come back,\u2019 that\u2019s what she told me. \u2018Patients are complaining that we are working on homosexuals. It\u2019s not allowed here in our culture. I\u2019m a Christian,\u2019\u201d Judith recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt very bad and almost cried but I\u2019m used to it [the slurs]. I was speechless, I left immediately,\u201d she told IPS.<\/p>\n

Judith says that most Ugandans do not understand the idea of being transgender<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere, people don\u2019t know anything about trans [sexual] issues. They just know gay and lesbian,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The way Judith was treated is \u201cnot surprising\u201d, Enrique Restoy, a senior advisor on human rights at the International HIV\/AIDS Alliance<\/a>, told IPS.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been receiving reports of HIV services being denied to men who have sex with men and transgender people in Uganda for years,\u201d said Restoy.<\/p>\n

He said that the passing of the draconian bill by parliament on Dec. 20 sent a \u201cdevastating signal to every citizen that it is okay to discriminate and stigmatise people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bill has been eroding the human rights of LGBTI people and driving them away from essential HIV services ever since it was tabled in parliament in 2009,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In his view, the legislation contravenes human rights conventions and political commitments on the HIV response signed by Uganda. In the 2011 United Nations Political Declaration on HIV\/AIDS<\/a>, all member states committed to passing laws to protect populations vulnerable to HIV.<\/p>\n

However, in recent years, Uganda, Nigeria and Malawi have proposed or approved homophobic legislation.<\/p>\n

In a statement<\/a>, the alliance said the bill would have \u201ca disastrous impact on the HIV response.\u201d The U.N., European Union and United States also criticised it.<\/p>\n

HIV prevention in jeopardy<\/b><\/p>\n

Uganda\u2019s bill called for life in prison for anyone convicted of \u201caggravated homosexuality\u201d, which includes same-sex acts with children or by anyone who is HIV positive.<\/p>\n

According to one report<\/a>, the bill made it a crime to \u201cpromote\u201d homosexuality, which could include offering HIV counselling to gays.<\/p>\n

This could affect local groups, supported by the alliance and other donors, which provide HIV prevention and counselling advice to gay people.<\/p>\n

Statistics on gay men and HIV are hard to find but, according to a survey<\/a> funded by the U.S. President\u2019s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, of 455 men who have sex with men in Kampala, they are at \u201csubstantially higher risk\u201d of contracting HIV than the general adult male population.<\/p>\n

A 2009 study by the School of Public Health at Makerere University on men who have sex with men in Kampala found that their HIV infection rates were almost twice as high, 13 percent, as the national average of seven percent.<\/p>\n

Dr Sam Okuonzi, a medical doctor and member of parliament, calls homosexuality an \u201cabnormality\u201d, but says only those who \u201cpromote, encourage and glorify it\u201d should be punished.<\/p>\n

He is adamant that the bill would not prevent HIV positive homosexuals from using health services.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny prohibitive provision to that effect must have been removed or will be removed,\u201d he told IPS. \u201cThis should enable all HIV\/AIDS patients to access medical treatment without fear of prosecution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Okuonzi observed that the views of his constituents in Vura County in Arua District, in northern Uganda, are \u201cmore extreme\u201d than his own.<\/p>\n

During a recent trip to Soroti in Eastern Uganda, Judith found that LGBTI people in rural areas face even more of a battle when it comes to accessing health services and enduring discrimination.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t have condoms, they don\u2019t have lubes [lubricants], they\u2019re chased from their homes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Despite feeling unwelcome, Judith believes the doctor in Kampala is not homophobic: \u201cThere is pressure from other people. She wants to keep her job. This bill has affected us a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related IPS Articles<\/b><\/p>\n